Oregon State's Joe Halahuni experiences the best and worst in college football after the UW game

AP photoSome plays are harder to forget than others. What happened at Husky Stadium Saturday night will stick with Joe Halahuni for a long time

CORVALLIS - For Oregon State tight endJoe Halahuni, the worst part was not being able to sleep on the bus ride home from Seattle.

The worst part was not being able to forget what happened, and wondering if he would spend the rest of his life going over a single play frame-by-frame.

Halahuni re-visited that two-point conversion pass in his mind, over and over, and it always came out the same: Washington inside linebacker Cort Dennison grabs Halahuni’s arm and pries the ball loose as he’s going to the ground.

End of game.

Oregon State loses.

In the aftermath of the most painful moment of his career, Halahuni would experience the best and worst parts of college football.

Following Washington’s 35-34 double-overtime victory,he said several Washington players approached him. Not to gloat, or to taunt him for letting OSU’s chance at winning slip agonizingly away, but to commiserate.

“A few of their guys – and I don’t remember who they were – came up to me as I was walking off the field. They told me to keep my head up, to stay positive, to have a good year,’’ said Halahuni.

“It was nice to hear that.’’

And then the team bus pulled into the Reser Stadium parking lot around 5 a.m. Sunday morning, and Halahuni found an obscene note attached to the windshield of his car.

“Nice catch, you bleep.’’

Welcome home, Joe.

Said cornerback James Dockery, shaking his head, “you know how it is (with fans). It’s the nature of the beast.’’

It’s true that Halahuni’s teammates – who know the Huskies’ loss didn’t come down to just one play – wrapped their collective arms around him in the dressing room following the game.

“This is a great team, it’s more like a family,’’ said Halahuni.

“And they treated me like family.’’

It is also true that while Halahuni was anxious to get back on the field three days after the UW game, he also wasn’t over the melancholy involved with almost but not quite being the hero.

Three days later, it still hurt.

“That’s kind of the moment I’ve dreamed about since I was little, having a game-winning touchdown in Husky Stadium,’’ said Halahuni, who grew up in a family of devout Washington fans.

“It used to be that the (game-winning) catch would be for the Huskies,’’ he said.

“But ever since I came to Oregon State, I wanted to do it against them. I had my opportunity, and I blew it.’’

He is reminded that it wasn’t an easy catch, that Dennison was instantaneously in his face after OSU quarterback Ryan Katz threw the ball, but Halahuni shook his head.

“I feel like if I touch the ball, I should be able to catch it,’’ he said.

“I was open, and the ball was thrown to me, and it came out. Their guy made a great play on the ball, but I just dropped it.’’

“Joe rushed it a little bit and (Katz) was a little bit late,’’ he said.

“I know Joe (takes the blame) and thinks he should have caught it but we had many opportunities to win that game,’’ said Langsdorf.

“We could point to 10 different things that happened on the field. I mean, the end-zone interception (in the fourth quarter) killed us. We had some untimely sacks and penalties. There’s a lot of things you could point at.’’

Dockery said he was just as culpable as Halahuni. “I gave up a deep ball that put us in a deeper hole. If I don’t give up that touchdown, we win. It’s not Joe’s fault. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s our team’s fault for not having enough intensity at the start of that game.’’

Dockery said he actually apologized to Halahuni, knowing how much it meant to Halahuni to beat the Huskies.

“You dream about that in the back yard. Five, four, three, two, one. I make the play and the Beavers win. Yeah. As an athlete, you want to be in that situation,’’ said Dockery.

“That ‘hometown’ stuff is what I felt bad about more than anything. I always like to see my teammates beat their hometown team. I told Joe that I was sorry after the game because I feel like I could played better and maybe that would have been the difference in him being being able to celebrate when he goes home.’’

There was no celebration. Just a long hug for his mom, a bus ride back to Corvallis, and then the reminder on his windshield that some fans aren’t willing to forgive and forget.

“If I make the catch, we aren’t even talking about this,’’ said Halahuni on Tuesday. “I just want to get back out there and start playing again. … it’s been a long few days.’’